Composition
"Rehab" is a mid-tempo R&B ballad with a subtle backbeat. According to the digital sheet music published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, it is written in the key of G minor and set in common time, with a moderately slow groove. The vocal range spans nearly an octave and a half from F3 to B♭4. "Rehab" opens with a string section, played by Stevie Blacke, and a violin, cello, and tambourine instrumental groove with Hannon Lane's keyboard melody. Rihanna then sings the opening lines, "Baby, baby, when we first met, I never felt something so strong".
Critics noted similarities among the structures of "Rehab" and some of Timberlake's songs, such as "What Goes Around... Comes Around" and "Cry Me a River". Spence D. of IGN wrote that the song has an "R&B swoon", similar to Rihanna's previous singles. In an interview with Margeaux Watson for Entertainment Weekly, Rihanna explained the meaning of the song's lyrics: "'Rehab' is a metaphorical song. Rehab really just means we have to get over the guy. So we talk about checking ourselves into rehab, meaning we have to get over him. And we compare the guy to a disease or an addiction." Watson further called the song a "lovesick ballad".
Read more about this topic: Rehab (Rihanna Song)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Pushkin’s composition is first of all and above all a phenomenon of style, and it is from this flowered rim that I have surveyed its seep of Arcadian country, the serpentine gleam of its imported brooks, the miniature blizzards imprisoned in round crystal, and the many-hued levels of literary parody blending in the melting distance.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“There was not a grain of poetry in the whole composition of Lord Fawn, and poetry was what her very soul craved;Mpoetry, together with houses, champagne, jewels, and admiration.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)